Dell profit rises 25 percent

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Dell said on Thursday its third-quarter profit rose 25 percent
compared with a year ago as the top personal-computer maker boosted
sales of its PCs, laptops and other gear by 18 percent.

Dell earned $US846 million, or 33 US cents a share, on revenue
of $US12.5 billion for the period up to October 29, meeting the
average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Going forward, Dell expects to earn 36 cents a share on 13.5
billion dollars in revenue for its fourth-quarter. Those estimates
are in line with current analysts' forecasts.

"Everything played out pretty much as expected," said Brett
Bracelin, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities.

Bracelin and other analysts have said that Dell stands to
benefit from industry pricing trends because of its business model,
which focuses on assembling low-cost, standards-based computing
products.

The company was able to grow its profit and sales because "an
improving component-cost environment further favors Dell," chief
executive Kevin Rollins said in a statement.

During the quarter, Dell said it shipped over eight million
computers including servers, notebooks and desktop units. Dell said
that notebook shipments did especially well, rising 35 percent from
a year ago.

Dell has also made inroads into computer peripherals such as
printers, and said its peripheral and software sales rose 37
percent over the year-ago period.